Bengali Style Veg Chops Recipe

Vegetable Chop is one of the most popular street foods in West Bengal. These are addictive and no one can just eat one. This recipe is quite a simple one as well as vegan friendly too. You must definitely try it.

These fried crisp veg chops can be compared to croquettes or cutlets and have a slight sweet taste due to the addition of beetroot, carrot and peanuts. Very different in taste as compared to the regular Veg cutlets or Kabab. The peanuts give a nice crunch and texture in the otherwise smooth and soft chops which are crisp from outside.

Veg chop is a well known street food in Bengal as well as Bihar. Basically these are veg cutlets with beetroot as one of the main ingredient.

Ingredients

Main Ingredients For Vegetable Chop

• 180 grams beetroot or 1 large beetroot
• 250 grams potatoes or 2 large potatoes
• 120 grams carrots or 2 small to medium carrots
• 3 tablespoons roasted peanuts
• 1 green chili – finely chopped or 1 teaspoon finely chopped green chili
• 1 inch ginger – finely chopped or 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
• ½ teaspoon Garam Masala or bengali bhaja masala
• ¼ teaspoon kashmiri red chili powder or red chilli powder
• ¼ teaspoon sugar – optional
• salt as required
• ⅓ cup breadcrumbs or ¼ cup sooji (rava or cream of wheat)
• oil for deep frying

For Batter

• 3 tablespoons maida or all purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons water

Instructions

Making Vegetable Chop Mixture

1. Rinse the veggies and then pressure cook them with ¼ teaspoon salt and enough water just about covering veggies.
2. Pressure cook for 15 to 17 minutes or for 6 to 7 whistles on a medium flame. Drain the veggies very well and keep aside.
3. Meanwhile heat a small pan and add 3 tablespoons roasted peanuts.
4. On a low flame, stirring often roast the peanuts till their skins chars a bit and they become crunchy. Let the peanuts cool down.
5. Remove the skins of the peanuts by rubbing them between your palms. Keep aside.
6. Now peel and grate the veggies in a mixing bowl or pan.
7. Add all the herbs, spice powders, roasted peanuts, sugar and salt.
8. A point to be noted is that saunf powder (fennel powder) is also added. But since the homemade garam masala powder I have used has saunf in it, I have not added saunf powder. If your garam masala does not have saunf, then you can add ½ teaspoon saunf powder.
9. Mix very well. I have not used any binding agent in the chop mixture. But if the mixture looks loose and very moist, then add some breadcrumbs. Moisture content of the beetroot can be more or less depending on its quality.

Assembling And Making Vegetable Chop

1. In a small bowl mix 3 tablespoons maida or all purpose flour and 6 tablespoons water to a smooth batter.
2. Now take a portion of the mixture. Shape into a cylindrical shaped cutlet.
3. Coat the veggie chop with the batter. These cutlets are light, so be gentle when coating with the batter. Do not coat too much as then the veg chop will break.
4. Now coat the batter coated veg chop in breadcrumbs. You can use both breadcrumbs or sooji (rava).
5. Crumb coat all the veg chops this way. Keep aside. If you do not plan to crumb coat, then add breadcrumbs in the mixture. You can add 2 to 3 tablespoons breadcrumbs or as required.

Frying Vegetable Chops:

1. Heat oil for deep frying in a pan or kadai.
2. When the oil becomes hot, test a small piece of the chop mixture. If it does not break, then you can easily fry the remaining veggie chops.
3. Place the vegetable chops gently in the hot oil and fry at medium temperature. Do not over crowd the pan.
4. When one side is golden and crisp, then with a butter knife, turn the vegetable chop. Its easier to turn them with a butter knife than with a slotted spoon.
5. Flip a couple of times more and fry till the outer coating becomes crisp.
6. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper kitchen towels.
7. Prepare all the vegetable chops this way.
8. Serve vegetable chops hot with tomato ketchup or coriander chutney or kasundi and some onion salad.